Abstract: Standing 153mm tall, the HP-1216B heatsink is equipped with a single no-name 120mm fan that rotates at 2000-1000RPM and is illuminated by four blue LEDs. At full speed it's moderately audible, and at the slowest speed you'll get good performance a nearly silent levels.

Although
the XtremeGear HP-1216B heatsink appears nearly identical to
the 3Rsystem Iceage 120 Boss II heatsink Frostytech previously
tested, the cooling fins are indeed designed slightly differently. In
almost every other respect the XtremeGear HP-1216B could be mistaken for that
Boss II heatsink, as both feature five 8mm diameter exposed copper heatpipes at the base and
a distinctive "X" pattern that places the heatpipes in the path of the
highest velocity air from the coolers' 120mm fan. The XtremeGear HP-1216B heatsink utilizes a dimpled surface texture on its raw aluminum fins as well, and quite amazingly retails for $29!

XtremeGear
are the branded reseller, so we're guessing PC Cooler or a similar thermal solution
OEM is the manufacturer behind the HP-1216B.

Standing 153mm tall, the HP-1216B heatsink is
equipped with a single no-name 120mm fan that rotates at 2000-1000RPM and is
illuminated by four blue LEDs. At full speed it's moderately audible, and at the
slowest speed you'll get good performance a nearly silent levels. The
HP-1216B comes with enough rubber vibration absorbing mounting posts that
an additional 120mm fan can be installed on the obverse side of the heatsink if
you wish. A manual fan controller is included as well. The entire CPU
cooler weighs in at 844 grams, and installs onto Intel socket 775/1156/1366
and AMD socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM3 processors.

The fin pattern on the XtremeGear HP-1216B
heatsink includes a small overlapping segment at the center. One fin bends out, the other curves in.
With the fan removed it's easy to see the alternating fin pattern pictured below.

Exposed
heatpipe heatsinks are great for the
larger
CPUs entering the marketplace, the Intel Core i5 and Core i7 in
particular. While Frostytech does not yet have thermal test results for these chips we
can look to the AMD thermal results for guidance on what to expect. The five
8mm diameter copper heatpipes stacked side-by-side at the bottom of the XtremeGear HP-1216B heatsink
will easily cover big CPU integrated heat spreaders. The base is no less than
54x38mm in size to be specific.

The fan is barely held on by its four
rubber vibration absorbing posts. The problem is that the rubber posts are
spaced a bit longer than the slots in the aluminum fins comfortably
allow... The fan holes are 105mm apart while the aluminum fin tower is
105mm high, so you can see where this is just bad design. What ends up
happening is the rubber keys fall out, usually the bottom two.

Heatsink Mounting Hardware

XtremeGear's HP-1216B heatsink
ships with brackets for Intel LGA775/1156/1366 and AMD 754/939/940/AM2/AM3 processors. The heatsink mounts to both Intel
and AMD motherboards using the permanently affixed metal bracket pictured below.

A collection of screws and spring-tensioned nuts accommodate the variety of hole patterns for the range of processors the HP-1216B heatsink is compatible with. Eight rubber vibration absorbing fan posts are supplied (only one fan included, two
can be attached) along with a manual fan speed controller.

FrostyTech's Test Methodologies are outlined in detail
here if you care to know what equipment is used, and the parameters under
which the tests are conducted. Now let's move forward and take a closer look at
this heatsink, its acoustic characteristics, and of course its performance in
the thermal tests!